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WAR PICTORIAL NEWS NO 96 [Main Title]

Summary: An edition of the British official newsreel "War Pictorial News", produced by the Ministry of Information, Middle East.

Description: I. 'RAID ON NAPLES.' United States Army Air Force (USAAF) flying crews exit tented accommodation in a desert location wearing A2 leather flying jackets and B2 shearling caps. A USAAF bombing raid on Naples harbour by Consolidated B-24 Liberators is introduced and is described as being part of the all-out air offensive against Hitler's Europe. B-24D aircraft start their take off runs from a desert airstrip, footage taken from the runway shows a B-24D taking off with a slight yaw, and retracting its undercarriage as it overflies the camera position. The commentary outlines the logistic and defensive difficulties in mounting a raid against Naples Harbour. Air to air footage shows USAAF B-24D formating during their climb to operational height followed by brief internal views from the pilot's "station" and mid-upper defensive gun turret. A Consolidated B-24D Liberator is shown in flight, bearing twenty two mission symbols and the legend "Zombie" on its fuselage. A B-24 waist-gunner wearing a B3 flying jacket strikes a heroic pose by his .50-in Browning machine gun (aircraft on ground). Aerial footage shows bombs dropping over Naples Harbour, with impact flashes evident around the quays and town. The raid was later described as being very successful, giving a new slant to the old saying "See Naples and Die."
II. 'RUSSIA.' Russian President of the Supreme Soviet V I Kalinin reads from a prepared speech to the peoples of the Soviet Union on New Years Eve 1942. Russian children play around the base of a rotating Christmas Tree and are entertained by small dancing dogs dressed in traditional Russian costume. The commentary states that the Russian leaders insist that young minds must be allowed relaxation from the horrors of total warfare. A clock face showing the time as midnight is superimposed over footage of industrial activity in a steel foundry. Women factory operatives working on the night-shift of a munitions production line kiss each other in celebration as midnight on New Years Eve is struck. A woman factory worker paints primer onto the barrel of a Polkovaya Pushka obr 1927 g (76-27) field piece. The commentary points out that there is little happiness to be found in Russia at years end, only an added determination to see things through to the bitter end. Elsewhere at midnight, Russian artillery opens fire on unseen targets, the barrage illuminating the snow-covered countryside. A flight of Russian Petlyakov Pe-2 bombers overfly a wintry landscape apparently on their way to bomb German positions near Stalingrad. A map shows the Stalingrad pocket and the extent of the Russian advance (all place names given in Cyrillic script). Russian infantry run across snow-covered terrain armed with Pistolet-Pulemyot Shpagina obr 1941g 1941 7.62mm sub-machine guns. A barbed wire obstacle is crushed under the tracks of a Russian T-34/76B tank. Russian infantry ride to the front on the back of T-34/76D tanks. A Russian artillery team fire a 122mm Pushka obr 1931/37g (A-19) gun from the cover of a snow-covered treeline. Warmly clad Russian infantry run across snow covered Steppe with a T-60 light tank in support. Russian infantry fire a Stankovy Pulemyot Maksima obr 1910g 7.92mm heavy machine gun mounted on a Sokolov carriage. Having liberated a hamlet from German occupation, Russian infantry unwind by listening to an impromptu outdoor concert given by one of their comrades on a battered but serviceable piano. The date "1943" is superimposed over scenes of T-34/76D tanks carrying Russian infantry driving through very small settlement of Isbas (Russian lodge houses). The commentary outlines how 1943 has been a very bad year for the Germans involved in the Russian Campaign with defeats in places such as Stalingrad, Kharkov and Mosdok and tremendous losses in men and matériel across all sectors of the front. The crew of a Russian 37mm Zenitnaya Pushka obr 1939g anti-aircraft gun fire single shots at a high flying twin-engined Axis aircraft. A Russian Klimenti Voroshilov KV-1 tank bearing a legend in Cyrillic on its turret, slows to let tank-descent infantry jump off. German dead (Luftwaffe ?) lay strewn on snow covered ground around a knocked-out 8.8cm Flak 18 anti-aircraft gun. The commentary states that as 1943 advances the fighting strength of Russia and her allies will increase until the final day of reckoning.